Aleksandr Lukich Ptushko (Russian: Ð Ð»ÐµÐºÑ Ð°Ð½Ð´Ñ€ Лукич
Птушко, Ukrainian: ÐžÐ»ÐµÐºÑ Ð°Ð½Ð´Ñ€ Лукич Птушко;
19 April [O.S. 6 April] 1900 â€" 6 March 1973) was a Soviet animation
and fantasy film director, and a People's Artist of the USSR (1969).
Ptushko is frequently (and somewhat misleadingly) referred to as "the
Soviet Walt Disney," due to his prominent early role in animation in
the Soviet Union, though a more accurate comparison would be to Willis
O'Brien or Ray Harryhausen. Some critics, such as Tim Lucas and Alan
Upchurch, have also compared Ptushko to Italian filmmaker Mario Bava,
who made fantasy and horror films with similarities to Ptushko's work
and made similarly innovative use of color cinematography and special
effects. He began his film career as a director and animator of
stop-motion short films, and became a director of feature-length films
combining live-action, stop-motion, creative special effects, and
Russian mythology. Along the way he would be responsible for a number
of firsts in Russian film history (including the first feature-length
animated film, and the first film in color), and would make several
extremely popular and internationally praised films full of visual
flair and spectacle.Born as Aleksandr Lukich Ptushkin into a peasant
family of Luka Artemievich Ptushkin and Natalia Semyonovna Ptushkina.
He studied in the realschule, then worked as an actor and decorator at
the local theater. In 1923 he enrolled into the Plekhanov Russian
University of Economics which he finished in 1926.Aleksandr Ptushko
began his film career in 1927 by gaining employment with Moscow's
Mosfilm studio. He began as a maker of puppets for stop-motion
animated short films made by other directors, and rapidly became a
director of his own series of silent puppet films featuring a
character called Bratishkin. From 1928 to 1932, Ptushko designed and
directed several of these "Bratishkin shorts." During these years,
Ptushko experimented with various animation techniques, including the
combination of puppets and live action in the same frame, and became
well known for his skills in cinematic effects work. Virtually all of
these short films are now lost.In 1933, Ptushko, along with the
animation crew he had assembled over the years, began work on his
first feature film entitled The New Gulliver. Written and directed by
Ptushko, The New Gulliver was one of the world's first feature length
animated films, and was also one of the first feature-length film to
combine stop-motion animation with live-action footage. (Many claim
that it was the first to do this, but Willis O'Brien had made The Lost
World in 1925 and King Kong in 1933. The New Gulliver was, however,
far more complex, as it featured 3,000 different puppets.) The story,
a Communist re-telling of Gulliver's Travels, is about a young boy who
dreams of himself as a version of Gulliver who has landed in Lilliput
suffering under capitalist inequality and exploitation. The New
Gulliver was released in 1935 to widespread acclaim and earned Ptushko
a special prize at the International Cinema Festival in Milan.
Птушко, Ukrainian: ÐžÐ»ÐµÐºÑ Ð°Ð½Ð´Ñ€ Лукич Птушко;
19 April [O.S. 6 April] 1900 â€" 6 March 1973) was a Soviet animation
and fantasy film director, and a People's Artist of the USSR (1969).
Ptushko is frequently (and somewhat misleadingly) referred to as "the
Soviet Walt Disney," due to his prominent early role in animation in
the Soviet Union, though a more accurate comparison would be to Willis
O'Brien or Ray Harryhausen. Some critics, such as Tim Lucas and Alan
Upchurch, have also compared Ptushko to Italian filmmaker Mario Bava,
who made fantasy and horror films with similarities to Ptushko's work
and made similarly innovative use of color cinematography and special
effects. He began his film career as a director and animator of
stop-motion short films, and became a director of feature-length films
combining live-action, stop-motion, creative special effects, and
Russian mythology. Along the way he would be responsible for a number
of firsts in Russian film history (including the first feature-length
animated film, and the first film in color), and would make several
extremely popular and internationally praised films full of visual
flair and spectacle.Born as Aleksandr Lukich Ptushkin into a peasant
family of Luka Artemievich Ptushkin and Natalia Semyonovna Ptushkina.
He studied in the realschule, then worked as an actor and decorator at
the local theater. In 1923 he enrolled into the Plekhanov Russian
University of Economics which he finished in 1926.Aleksandr Ptushko
began his film career in 1927 by gaining employment with Moscow's
Mosfilm studio. He began as a maker of puppets for stop-motion
animated short films made by other directors, and rapidly became a
director of his own series of silent puppet films featuring a
character called Bratishkin. From 1928 to 1932, Ptushko designed and
directed several of these "Bratishkin shorts." During these years,
Ptushko experimented with various animation techniques, including the
combination of puppets and live action in the same frame, and became
well known for his skills in cinematic effects work. Virtually all of
these short films are now lost.In 1933, Ptushko, along with the
animation crew he had assembled over the years, began work on his
first feature film entitled The New Gulliver. Written and directed by
Ptushko, The New Gulliver was one of the world's first feature length
animated films, and was also one of the first feature-length film to
combine stop-motion animation with live-action footage. (Many claim
that it was the first to do this, but Willis O'Brien had made The Lost
World in 1925 and King Kong in 1933. The New Gulliver was, however,
far more complex, as it featured 3,000 different puppets.) The story,
a Communist re-telling of Gulliver's Travels, is about a young boy who
dreams of himself as a version of Gulliver who has landed in Lilliput
suffering under capitalist inequality and exploitation. The New
Gulliver was released in 1935 to widespread acclaim and earned Ptushko
a special prize at the International Cinema Festival in Milan.
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